MYEFO to be issued when appropriate:Abbott

Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has indicated that his new government's mid-year budget review may be delayed until January.

Mr Abbott said the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) would be released "at the appropriate time".

Quizzed by journalists in Canberra on Monday, he said he understands MYEFO has in some years come out in January as opposed to November or December as usual.

"The important thing is to get the right policies in place as quickly as we can, so that when MYEFO does come out, it does so in ways which reassure the Australian people that the economy is under stronger management than it might have been over the last few years," he said.

Mr Abbott said there is a "very serious deterioration" in the budgetary situation, but not that different from the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO).

"It is not markedly different from that," he said.

"Nevertheless, I want to stress that we will bring the budget back into surplus as quickly as we responsibly can, consistent with the election commitment that we have given."

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The PEFO published by the departments of Treasury and Finance during the election campaign pointed to a number of risks coming from offshore.

It also confirmed the former Labor government's August projection for a budget surplus of around $4 billion in 2016/17, after $33.3 billion of revenue writedowns in the earlier financial years.

In May, Labor had pointed to a larger surplus of $6.6 billion in 2016/17.

Last year, Labor had promised to deliver a surplus in this 2012/13 financial.

But it scrapped the forecast when it released the budget update in December.

Acting Labor leader and former treasurer Chris Bowen said Mr Abbott was avoiding scrutiny of the budget by waiting until everyone was on holiday in January.

He said releasing MYEFO that late is unprecedented since the Charter of Budget Honesty Act was passed in 1998.

Many of Canberra's press gallery will be away on holiday, he said.

"You will have your board shorts on ... there will not be the normal scrutiny you get in this building in other months of the year," he told reporters at Parliament House.

He said this was consistent with the approach the coalition took during the election campaign of failing to be "upfront and honest" with the Australian people about the impact of their policies on the budget.

"What we are seeing now is a clear pattern of behaviour from this new government, saying one thing before the election and doing another thing after the election."